MEDIA WATCH

Guardian: White House clash with TV chiefs

Bush administration claims CBS is allowing the Iraqi leader to set the agenda by refusing them a right to reply
The Bush administration and the American TV network CBS were embroiled in a slanging match last night over charges that the broadcaster rejected a White House offer to rebut comments made by Saddam Hussein in his first US interview for 13 years.
"This seems odd they wouldn't let the White House have a voice," Ari Fleischer, President George Bush's spokesman, told reporters yesterday, hours before CBS broadcast the Iraqi leader's meeting with the veteran US news anchor Dan Rather.
Mr Fleischer said CBS had refused to give a right of reply unless it came from Mr Bush in person, an offer the administration spurned "in the name of not making a moral equivalence between a dictator and a democracy".
But the White House was interested in "equal time", Mr Fleischer said - "in the same interview and the same time".
Ms Genelius said: "The issue of equal time ... is a little curious, because the truth is that the American people see the president and his administration virtually every day. We report the White House position on key issues virtually every day."

New York Times: CBS News and White House Differ on Rebutting Hussein
The exclusive interview by CBS News with Saddam Hussein, broadcast last
night, led to a disagreement between the network and the White House
yesterday after CBS News declined a request to have a White House
representative appear during the interview to rebut claims made by the
Iraqi president. .... CBS News executives said that the original
request
from the White House asked for the opportunity for a White House
representative to appear several times to rebut whatever had just been
said
by Mr. Hussein. .. Mr. Heyward said CBS News believed this was
unnecessary.
"Ari Fleischer has access to the American public every single day," he
said......Mr. Fleischer said one reason he wanted to rebut Mr. Hussein
was
to make clear to broadcast news media that Iraqi representatives should
not
make unsubstantiated charges on the air. ... He predicted that, in the
event of war, Iraqis would try to get on American news outlets with
claims
of "Americans blowing up a dam" or other facilities. "If it's all lies,
why
put it on in the first place?" Mr. Fleischer said. Die Amerikanische Propaganda ist schon jetzt damit beschäftigt allfällige vorwürfe die es in zukunft geben könnte als lügen abzutun...zivillisten gebombt? lügen